New Delay for Mysterious Military Space Plane Launch

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The next launch of the U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane, a
robotic spacecraft used to fly classified payloads into Earth
orbit, has been delayed until next month pending final approvals,
SPACE.com has learned.

The secretive
X-37B space plane, an Orbital Test Vehicle that resembles a
miniature space shuttle, is now expected to be boosted in early
December by a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Launch
Complex 41 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It
marks the latest in a series of delays for the unmanned space
plane.

The mission, called OTV-3, had been pushed back from Oct.
25 to Nov. 13, and then to Nov. 27.

While no specific
cause of the X-37B launch delay was given, previous holdups
were called due to the ongoing investigation into an engine
glitch that occurred during an Oct. 5 flight of a Delta 4
booster, a relative to the Atlas 5. That launcher experienced
below-normal pressure in the upper-stage engine chamber while
placing a Global Positioning System 2F-3 satellite into orbit.

Holding off on the
liftoff of the Atlas 5 rocket has allowed for
additional investigation into flight data anomalies in the Delta
4 engine glitch as well as for a thorough "crossover assessment"
for the X-37B OTV launch vehicle, officials have stated.

Gen. William Shelton, the Air Force Space commander, asked for a
discretionary accident investigation board to investigate why the
Delta 4 RL-10B-2 upper-stage engine did not perform as expected.
As its standard process, the Air Force reviews all flight data to
determine whether it's ready to proceed with the next liftoff.

Rooting out the cause

According to the online journal of the Air Force Association,
Airforce-magazine.com, Shelton commented on the glitch during an
AFA breakfast program in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 7. "We have to
find out what happened," he said.

Shelton commented that the RL-10 had behaved anomalously,
requiring "a bit of a diving save" to accomplish the October GPS
satellite launch. Looks into why the engine underperformed have
not revealed a root cause of the anomaly, Shelton said.

ULA's Rye said in a Nov. 2 statement: "This flight data anomaly
investigation is being conducted with investigative processes
that have been refined over decades of launch experience and
include extensive reconstruction of the flight data with
analytical models, as well as detailed inspections of several
engines."

Space plane's first re-flight

When the Air Force robotic space plane — carrying a classified
payload — heads for Earth orbit, it will be the third launch for
the X-37B
program, and will mark the first re-flight of one of the
space planes built by Boeing Government Space Systems.

This same vehicle being readied for flight flew the first flight
of the X-37B program back in 2010, or OTV-1. That maiden voyage
lasted 225 days in orbit and eventually zoomed on autopilot over
the Pacific Ocean and glided down onto a specially prepared
runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The OTV-2 mission, using a different space plane model, made a
Vandenberg touchdown on June 16 of this year after remaining in
orbit for 469 days, more than doubling its sister ship's stay.

The X-37B craft is 29 feet long (8.8 meters) and 15 feet wide
(4.5 m), with a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed.

Flights of the X-37B are conducted under the auspices of the Air
Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office. According to an Air Force fact
sheet, the Rapid Capabilities Office is working on the X-37B
Orbital Test Vehicle "to demonstrate a reliable, reusable,
unmanned space test platform for the United States Air Force."

While the prototype
X-37B space plane’s mission remains a mystery, the Union of
Concerned Scientists, headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., views
the program as a less-than-cost-effective way to conduct space
activities.

In a statement today, UCS space experts said the plane could
carry out a range of missions but that in each case there is a
better, more efficient and more cost-effective way of
accomplishing it.

"And because it is an Air Force project and its details are
classified, the plane has generated confusion, speculation and,
in some cases, concern about its actual purpose," they added.

According to the UCS, "what distinguishes the
space plane from other spacecraft is its ability to return
from orbit and land on a runway. This capability requires extra
structure, such as wings, landing gear and heat shielding to
withstand the rigors of re-entry, making it significantly heavier
than comparable spacecraft that are not designed to return to
Earth. Because of this extra mass, the space plane is more
difficult to maneuver in space and significantly more expensive
to launch."

No persuasive rationale

In a briefing paper, the UCS points out that other spacecraft can
carry payloads into orbit, maneuver in space and rendezvous with
satellites, deploy payloads, and return to Earth for tens of
millions of dollars less than the space plane.

"The ability to return to Earth carries a high price," said Laura
Grego, a senior scientist with UCS’s Global Security Program.
"Most space missions don’t require bringing a spacecraft back to
Earth, and the space plane makes no sense for them. And if
returning to Earth does make sense, spacecraft usually use
parachutes, not
wings and landing gear. Compared with those, the space plane
will have a harder time carrying payloads into orbit, maneuvering
in space, rendezvousing with satellites, and releasing multiple
payloads."

Given Air Force silence in detailing the space plane's raison
d'être, other countries may infer that the X-37B has a
specialized military purpose. But, according to Grego, the space
plane does not make sense as a space weapon or as a vehicle for
deploying space weapons.

"In a time of tightening budgets, the administration and Congress
should take a close look at the X-37B program and figure out why
they’re spending money on a program that has no persuasive
rationale," Grego said.

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for
more than five decades. He is a winner of last year's National
Space Club Press Award and a past editor-in-chief of the National
Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has
written for SPACE.com since 1999.